Items of Interest July 7, 1917 Issue

Items of Interest

At Withby, on the Yorkshire coast of England between the Humber and the Tyne, the manufacture of jet ornaments has been carried on for many centuries. From about 1850 to 1880 was the most flourishing period. Some fifteen hundred men and boys were employed, but changes of fashion and the competition of German-made glass imitations of jet had almost put an end to the industry before the war. The war has revived the trade, though the number of men now employed at Whithy is not large. It has likewise stopped the importation of jet from Spain and correspondingly extended its mining at Whitby, where the supplies are believed to be practically indexhaustible. Jet is a substance apparently allied to anthracite, and is also mined in Spain in the province of Asturias, in France in the department of the Aude, and in Germany in Wurttemberg.

A decree signed by the President of Brazil on May 9 authorizes the secretary of the treasury to issue an additional 20,000,000 milreis ($4,800,000 United States gold) of treasury notes in accordance with the law of Aug. 28, 1915, which sanctioned a total issue of 350,000,000 milreis for liquidating the compromises of the treasury prior to 1915, meeting the deficits of the budget, providing aid and preventive measures against drought, and assisting the bank of Brazil with funds at 3 per cent to develop its operations of discount and rediscount, etc. Of the total amount authorized, notes to the value of 315,000,000 milreis have been issued. With this latest issue the amount of paper money in circulation in Brazil now reaches the total of 1,157,527,725 milreis, or $277,806,650.

All paper mills in the United States will be placed under Governmant control during the war, and a request be made that the Canadian Government take the same action, if a recommendation made to the Senate by the Federal Trade Commission is carried out. It is estimated by the commission that paper manufacturers during 1916 received over seventeen million five hundred thousand dollars in excess profits and that paper during 1917 will cost $35,000,000 more to the consumer than last year. "The news print paper situation is very serious," says the report, "not only to the consumers of paper, but to the public generally and to the Government of the United States, which is itself a large consumer of paper. The commission has reason to believe that this situation will be still more aggravated and serious in the ensuing months."

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